This is a short memoir of my feminist philosopher foremother, Mara Lynn Keller. Your passing created a little crater in my heart. May this memoir fill it with the water that gives life to ALL. I have not realized what your support of me meant until I write this tribute. Thank you for the beautiful gift of your friendship and care, which I cherish in my hearts, dear Mara. First off, I thank Glenys Livingstone who brought the word of Mara’s passing in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group. Glenys quoted the words of Charlene Spretnak, “She was attended during the final week by a circle of four women who loved her plus a hospice nurse whose calm but buoyant energy Mara enjoyed.”
Mara and I met in person on a few occasions over the span of nearly two decades. It could be three or four times in all. She also invited me as a speaker/presenter to her Zoom meeting, which I attended. It was rare that I got a personal invitation to an official meeting of such kind. There was no barrier in her to say what she thought of me, the complimentary words. She did not hesitate to act out of her perception of me. She was near me but I did not recognize.
For a long time until the last couple of years, I was too stubborn and isolated to be reached by any academic. I did not experience a collegial bond with anyone other than Mary Daly who was, nonetheless, not exactly my colleague but a mentor friend. My relationship with Mara remained distant by nature. I neither attended the Women’s Spirituality program in CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) nor taught for it. As a junior scholar, I did not have an opportunity close enough to ask for something such as a recommendation letter, a book review, or a participation in the conference panels that I used to organize. It seemed our paths did not meet on the surface.
A deep bond was growing between us. In retrospect, I now see that our paths could have crossed more closely around the year 2007. I was offered a course to co-teach for the Women’s Spirituality program at CIIS but we declined it. When Mara had a chance to talk to me later, she asked why I declined it. I was surprised that you really meant to have me there to co-teach that course. I tended not to choose a competitive environment, a reason why I could not stay too long or too closely in a university teaching position. I was a philosophical Daoist, the loner who found no motivation for the nitty-gritty of advancing an academic position.
Mara, you have given me (and The Mago Work) precious gifts since the mid 2000s. During this period, we began emailing and messaging frequently on salient matters. I thank you for relying on your original perception of me beyond some possible interruptions from me.
To begin with the most recent ones, you gave two research papers. The first paper was for the S/HE journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies Volume 2, Number 2, just published in the fall of 2023.
The second essay, “The Myriad Faces, Marvelous Powers, and Thealogy of Greek Goddesses” was included in the textbook, Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018).
And I intuited that you were the influence in the inclusion of a few books published by Mago Books to be awarded in “100 of the Best New Women’s Spirituality Books.”
WOMEN’S SPIRITUALITY BOOK AWARDS & 25TH ANNIVERSARY LIBRARY COLLECTION
Mago Books and I were honored with these four books for which I was grateful.
Beavis, Mary Ann and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, eds. Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture.
Hwang, Helen Hye-Sook. The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago the Goddess from East Asia.
Hwang, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Mary Ann Beavis, eds. Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess.
Hwang, Helen Hye-Sook and Kaalii Cargill, eds. She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 1.
The fourth gift that I received from you goes back to the year 2007. My paper, “Female Principle in The Magoist Cosmogony,” was published in Ochre Journal of Women’s Spirituality (out of print).
In fact, your gifts were countless. Prior to that, you acknowledged in public that Nane Jordan (then Ph.D. candidate) and I co-created the section of “Goddess Studies” to be installed in the U.S. academic conference for the first time in history. Together with Nane Jordan, I co-founded a section, Goddess Studies, in AAR/WR (American Academy of Religion/Western Region) possibly in 2006.
Before that moment, there were more. Let me go back to our first encounter in person. We met face to face alone on a day during an academic conference in the mid 2000s. In those years, I was diligently attending and participating in academic conferences, mostly the Western Regional Conference of AAR (American Academy of Religion) as well as the National AAR. In one year, possibly 2007, two years after I completed my doctoral degree, I attended and presented a paper to AAR/WR held in Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley California.
Out of urgency, I mustered my strength to summon an impromptu meeting with women scholars and students of “Goddess/Female Divine Studies,” who were at the conference. More than a dozen of women colleagues gathered on the spot. Sitting at a rectangular table outside section rooms, each of us went around to introduce herself and addressed the need for a collaborative effort. Our voices were filled with conviction and desperation. There was no moderator but everyone spoke for the allowed time. Mara was not sitting at the table but apparently she watched us from a distance. After the meeting was disbanded, Mara approached me and asked for a word with me. We sat at a nook nearby. I barely knew her then. And I did not understand what that brief encounter meant until some years later. Mara and I continued to meet in the conferences thereafter. One year, I presented a paper about Mago folklore associated with mountains and rocks in a session. Mara commended my paper in a discussion. On other years, I attended her presentations. Nonetheless, I could not think of inviting her to my Goddess Studies conference sessions, mentioned above.
For the last few years, I thought I was able to rebuild our connections not knowing your time was getting close to end. You connected with me as if there would be no such end. I kept in touch with Mara until the last month of her life. In fact, I had invited her to do an E-Interview with me for Return to Mago (RTM) E-Magazine. She did not hesitate to say yes. I asked her to submit her most current C.V. and other bio data, which she did. And I wrote my questions and sent them to her. Below were my questions:
1. When and how did your interest, research, and/or commitment to Goddess scholarship begin?
2. What prompts you to develop your scholarship on the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone?
3. What was your involvement with the Women’s Spirituality program at CIIS like?
4. How did that experience change or affirm your commitment to Goddess scholarship and movement?
5. You retired from academic teaching recently. What would your advice be for the young scholars who seek an academic teaching position in feminist studies or Goddess spirituality?
6. Tell us about the message, “The Freedom of Religion to worship Goddess is a Social Justice Issue!,” you delivered to the Parliament of the World’s Religions at the Women’s Plenary in 2015.
I am going to end this tribute with Mara’s three emails sent to me. On September 11th, 2023, she wrote:
On September 17th, 2023:
On September 24th, she briefly replied to me, as follows:
There are more short letters from her like the above before and after these dates. Earlier, she wrote me that she was finally coming home from an extended period of hospitalization. Her spring/summer in 2023 was spent to treat an illness and I thought she was getting recovered in the fall. What makes me comforted is that you replied to me till the last months. Your last Facebook message was sent on October 26, 2023. It was such a warm and beautiful journey with you, dearest Mara. You are in my hearts and I continue our connections.
In Water Love,
Helen
Touching beyond words. Thank you, Helen.